(TheGuardian) Six former British soldiers jailed on weapons charges in India have been found not guilty on appeal, according to supporters.
The men, who were working on the AdvanFort anti-piracy ship MV Seaman Guard Ohio, are:
Nick Dunn from Ashington, Northumberland
Billy Irving from Connel, Argyll
Ray Tindall from Chester
Paul Towers from … [Read more...]

by Will Coldwell (TheGuardian) Passengers lounging on cruise ship pool decks could be exposing themselves to dangerous levels of pollution, according to an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches team that found some public areas on the ships’ decks were more polluted than the world’s worst-affected cities.
The undercover investigation, which will be broadcast tonight at … [Read more...]

by Patrick Wintour (TheGuardian) A hundred refugees and migrants crammed into a small dinghy that started taking in water in the Mediterranean endured an agonising 30-hour wait before they were rescued, a maritime log passed to the Guardian has revealed.
The incident happened over the Easter weekend, the unofficial start of the “sailing season”, which sees … [Read more...]

by Ashifa Kassam (TheGuardian) A towering iceberg is causing traffic jams in a remote town on Canada’s east coast, as tourists jostle for a glimpse of the mass of ice sitting in shallow water just off Newfoundland.
The iceberg, which has dwarfed the nearby small town of Ferryland, is estimated to measure some 46 metres (150ft) at its highest point. “It’s the … [Read more...]

(TheGuardian) The HMS Sutherland will monitor Steregushchiy-class corvettes Soobrazitelny and Boiky as well as a Russian support tanker and ocean-going tug when they sail close to UK territorial waters on Saturday.
The ships were located by the Plymouth-based Type 23 frigate as they sailed through the North Sea towards the Dover Strait on Friday morning.
The … [Read more...]

(TheGuardian) One of the main coral reefs at Raja Ampat, an Indonesian island chain home to perhaps the world’s richest marine biodiversity, was severely damaged this month when a Bahamian-flagged cruise ship smashed into it at low tide, according to an official report.
The 90-meter Caledonian Sky, owned by tour operator Noble Caledonia, ran aground in an uncharted shoal in … [Read more...]

by Tom Phillips (TheGuardian) He was one of the key salesmen of New Labour, a Westminster wheeler-dealer whose backstage machinations and silver tongue saw him nicknamed Britain’s svengali of spin.
Now, Tony Blair’s former communications chief Peter Mandelson is pushing a rather different project: the New Titanic, a 1bn yuan (£116m) bid to rebuild the doomed … [Read more...]